SNP's Next Permanent Manager 2024

[Ludo*1]

Usual candidates apply.

[D Angelo Barksdale]

What fucking took you ?

Thank you.

[Granny Danger]

Voted for Stephen Flynn, more in hope than expectation.

[Theyellowbox]

Obviously a shoot out between Swinney and Forbes, but here's a left field option, what about a combo of both. Swinney as FM and Forbes as deputy, but a more enhanced deputy than previous.

A kind of modern day Jocky Scott/Alex Smith combo. Would satisfy both wings of SNP. 

[Granny Danger]

46 minutes ago, Theyellowbox said:

Obviously a shoot out between Swinney and Forbes, but here's a left field option, what about a combo of both. Swinney as FM and Forbes as deputy, but a more enhanced deputy than previous.

A kind of modern day Jocky Scott/Alex Smith combo. Would satisfy both wings of SNP. 

Yeah, I’m sure having a homophobe and anti-abortionist as Deputy Leader rather than Leader is the solution to the problem.

[Trogdor]

It's a poll on P&B, there is only one answer. John Hughes.

[houston_bud]

2 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

Yeah, I’m sure having a homophobe and anti-abortionist as Deputy Leader rather than Leader is the solution to the problem.

It must've been a sore one for the left/progressive wing of the party that Forbes got the support of the best part of half the membership.

I'm not convinced she'll run this time, bit it's hard to see how the party doesn't split if she was to get in.

[Richey Edwards]

How about a foreign First Minister?

[Theroadlesstravelled]

Absolutely no one bald. Whoever gets the job needs to have a magnificent head of lustrous hair.

And no one who cares more about the weird idealists that the concerns of actual voters.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

An even worse choice than last time.

We have Forbes being treated as the Devil Incarnate/Messiah (delete as applicable). I personally have sn issue with her not because of her religious tinted views but how she crumbled last time round with simple questions related to said views. If she can't handle simple bat away questions is she really capable of dealing with the more robust attacks?

Swinney is just an appalling choice - even closer to Sturgeon than Yousaf.  That wouldn't necessarily be an issue on its own if it weren't for the fact that he has been useless in an almost every cabinet position he has served in - possibly one of the worst ever Education Ministers we have had.  His only saving grace was his stint as Finance Minister.  And to compound matters he is about as inspirational as a wet weekend in Largs.

Edited April 30 by DeeTillEhDeh

[LauriestonBairn]

Ive told the cabinet they're brilliant, so maybe it's my fault. Maybe a few home truths need to be told in terms of whats required. Too many boiz oot there, nearly men. We nearly goat there. Come oan, weve all read the book eh politics. Ive read it for the last 35 year. Wear yer heart oan yer sleeve to go and win an election and hopefully theyll learn fae this the day. Hopefully they can bring it next time, we've goat a good record, hopefully we can go and pick up the votes. Itll no be easy, labour are no mugs yi know (lol), theyre no mugs, theyve goat players.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

4 hours ago, Richey Edwards said:

How about a foreign First Minister?

We’ve just had Hamas Youseff m9

#WATP  

[Richey Edwards]

1 hour ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

We’ve just had Hamas Youseff m9

#WATP  

The Scottish talent pool is shite m8. Plenty of foreign former heads of government doing f**k all atm.

[Scary Bear]

4 hours ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

Absolutely no one bald. Whoever gets the job needs to have a magnificent head of lustrous hair.

And no one who cares more about the weird idealists that the concerns of actual voters.

Did you see the photo of the 6 likely candidates that the BBC News came up with. Three reasonably attractive women and three bald men. If it’s a man, he’ll be bald.

[MONKMAN]

Mairi McAllan would be my choice and I'm fairly sure she will lead one day.  As someone previously mentioned though, she's going on maternity leave so not ideal timing.

[BFTD]

7 hours ago, Trogdor said:

It's a poll on P&B, there is only one answer. John Hughes.

I'm glad somebody finally had the balls to put his name forward.

Considering he's got time on his hands the noo, he should genuinely give politics a crack. What's the worst that could happen? Boris Johnson couldn't construct a fully-formed sentence either and he did alright.

[Richie]

In terms of independence, someone who is robust in debate is required.

Swinney seems a bit of a wet wipe in that regard, similar to Humza.

Unfortunately it's unlikely there will be anyone near the calibre of Salmond - who like him or loathe him - regularly wiped the floor with people and batted questions away with aplomb.

[ICTChris]

John Swinney has the most experience - he was Finance Secretary for nearly a decade and was Education secretary for five years.  He has also been involved in high level political negotiations, part of the team who worked on the Bute House Agreement (RIP ur wiv da angles now) and was also part of the team who negotiated with the UK Government on increasing the powers of the Scottish Parliament.  No other candidate has this experience of working in government.  During much of his time as Finance Secretary he was required to work with other parties to pass the budget, which is a skill that will be in high demand given the collapse of the SNP-Green coalition.

On the downside, his performance as Education secretary has not been of a high standard.  There were numerous issues during his tenusre, including controversy over the assessment methods used when exams were cancelled due to Covid and Swinney was subject to a confidence vote and had to make a U-turn on his initial plan.  During his time at Education the attainment gap between richer and poorer pupils did not fall and in quite a few areas became larger.  Exam achievements in maths and science by Scottish pupils dropped by international standards.  

To be fair to Swinney, there are multiple reasons for these issues and blaming it entirely on the reign of one Education secretary is a bit of a stretch.  However, if we are assessing his time in the post, it would have to be considered a failure.  Since 2021 he has been the Secretary for Covid Recovery, I have no idea what that is or how his success or failure in the post could be assessed.

 

[funky_nomad]

Nae such hing as guid, hoanest polittishuns. Soart thum oot, Yogi.

[GordonS]

5 hours ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

 

We have Forbes being treated as the Devil Incarnate/Messiah (delete as applicable). I personally have sn issue with her not because of her religious tinted views but how she crumbled last time round with simple questions related to said views. If she can't handle simple bat away questions is she really capable of dealing with the more robust attacks?

Swinney is just an appalling choice - even closer to Sturgeon than Yousaf.  That wouldn't necessarily be an issue on its own if it weren't for the fact that he has been useless in an almost every cabinet position he has served in - possibly one of the worst ever Education Ministers we have had.  His only saving grace was his stint as Finance Minister.  And to compound matters he is about as inspirational as a wet weekend in Largs.

This should be the beginning and end of the conversation on both of them. Regardless of their beliefs, Forbes and Swinney are bad at politics. Being a leader is very different from being a Minister. Forbes torpedoed her own campaign like she was channeling her inner Andrea Leadsom. Swinney was really poor as leader last time - he lead the worst election campaign the SNP have had in many decades - and has a remarkably good reputation for someone who doesn't have a single success to his name. He looks and sounds like someone you'd trust and he's a nice guy but he's a rotten leader.